OUTCOMES/RESULTS

Results

Knowing that Spanish and Somali are easier languages to learn to read and write in, due to the simplicity of their foundation in phonics, decoding, syllabication and grammar rules and the knowledge that once students learn to read and write in their Primary/Home Language, they are able to transfer those skills to English, students become fluent readers by 3rd grade.

In our 4 years of implementation, 100% of the student’s who’s parent’s were participating in our Native/Home/Primary Early Literacy program were able to pass the AIMS and MCA state tests.

Why it works

Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn because of its shallow orthographic depth.  With no unfamiliar phonemes, only one pronunciation/sound for its 5 vowels and 5 diphthongs, and its simple rules for syllabication, words are easy to decode and most words are written as they are pronounced.  So, reading and writing in Spanish is a straightforward and easy task.

Somali, like Spanish, is based on the Latin alphabet.  It, also has a shallow orthographic depth, which means that most words are written as pronounced.  It has 10 vowels, 5 short (like Spanish – a, e, i, o, u) with the same pronunciation as Spanish and 5 long (double each vowel – aa, ee, ii, oo, uu).  With its simple rules for syllabication, words are easy to decode, making Somali like Spanish and easy language to learn to read and write in and a very straight forward language.

Scope and Sequence Comparison

Comparison of most common Spanish speaking Latin American Countries to US Common Core State Standards of ELA for Kinder and First Grade